It’s no secret that people are the main resource of any company, ensuring its existence and success. We at Valeo Egypt spend endless hours discussing different ways of how to achieve a better work environment and the best balance between employees’ wellbeing and satisfaction. Surely the entire HR industry is constantly undergoing endless debates on how to make this an achievable road in order to attain business objectives. This is the main and most difficult point that any management team has to handle with a big workforce — especially when it’s big as Valeo’s in Egypt.
Today, we have over 1 300 employees in the Cairo office, and they are the main reason why the company has become the biggest software R&D centre in Egypt over the past 12 years. It’s simple – without people, we wouldn’t be where we are now. It is the skill sets of individuals that make the difference in any organisation, and it’s about the way the organisation recognises and encourages these skills for further development and growth. This is why we have developed several programs that aim to increase both team and individual development across our entire workforce.
The question is, what is our role — as an organisation — to support our employees’ development plan? How do we ensure that our employees are ready for their next career step? How do we prepare them? Is it fully led by them, or by their management team?
The answer is quite straightforward — the idea is to invest in your talent by all means possible. Valeo always aims to provide the highest standards of development for its employees through a wide range of creative initiatives and programs that are well thought out and truly aligned with the company’s culture, values and code of conduct.
Our target is to empower our employees to have a role in analysing their own talents and achievements, so as to be able to identify their own development plans while taking advantage of our support and guidance. It starts off with the support of the company in coaching managers on how to prepare the employee for her next career level through different succession plans, individual development and mentoring programmes. This also opens the way for our employees to explore and self-assess their own skills. Career discussion is a common activity in our talent development programs, where employees are given the opportunity to pick one of two career paths — whether it’s a managerial path or an expertise path.
I have been at Valeo Egypt for the past 12 years and can proudly say that I have seen numerous self-driving, career-centric employees and team members who were laser-focused on their personal career growth and made use of the different tools that were provided with by HR. These people today make up most of our management team.
At the end of the day, even if an organisation provides employees with a whole set of training tools, coaching sessions and the like, I believe that it takes more than just experience, expertise, competence, integrity and deep understanding of the organisation to get to the next level of your career. Getting to the peak of your career takes self-motivation, focus and strong willingness to take matters into your hands, along with self-confidence and the belief that you CAN take your career to the next level by making use of what the organisation provides you with.
Wael Abouelmaaty is group software delivery services director & general manager, Valeo Egypt